BIRTH OF A YELLOW SWALLOWTAILED BUTTERFLY.

We have just been on holiday to Sark visiting our Daughter and Son-in-Law, when we arrived we discovered they were expecting an addition to the family (no! not that sort), they had found a caterpillar on their Trefoil which they learned was a rare one in their neck of the woods. They nurtured it on as it went into pupa stage and by the time we arrived it was perched by a light in the garden well on the way to becoming a butterfly. They covered it up by night and uncovered it to get the sun by day, they christened it Junior. By friday lunchtime of last week things began to happen…………

Snuggled up cosily.

Looking strange but something definitely happening.

OOPS! bit wobbly but I made it to the step.

Feeling a bit stronger.

I’ll just rest here on this lovely foliage.

That’s given me the strength to climb up here.

Ah! food, a chance to show off my lovely underwings.

Looking skyward, it looks lovely, I think I’ll give it a try. With that he flew away into the sun. Junior is famous now in Sark, as soon as he started to appear people came to take pictures and our Daughter has given two interviews to Channel Television and the Guernsey Press are doing a two page spread on butterflies in Sark including Junior.

Update on the happy event, my daughter says that the butterfly sanctuary in Jersey has Swallowtails but has never managed to breed one, this is the first recorded breeding of one in the whole of the Channel Islands, he made the Guernsey press and Channel Television and has now gone worldwide, there is great interest. The only problem is they only live for about three weeks so if he is going to breed he needs some serious speed dating.

Good thinking TT, well I have thought of one, seeing as when you get to the end of our Daughters property you can look straight across the sea to the coast of France and possibly one or both of Juniors parents might have come over from France, without wanting to appear rude perhaps the conversation would go something like, "Do you fancy a naughty weekend in Paris". I'll keep working on it.